Chapter 12: The Hellenistic Period

Section 1: Philip II of Macedonia

¨     Macedonia was small mountainous country to the N. of Greece.

¨     Had fought against Greeks (GR), but admired their culture.

¨     Philip (PH) had been held hostage as a youth by the GR city-state Thebes.

¨     Believed it was his destiny to unite GR and help spread GR culture.

¨     Philip was determined to unite GR and did this by a variety of methods.

¨     1. He improved the army and made it a full time paid job.

¨     2. Developed the phalanx military formation.

¨     3. Used better weapons like longer spears.

¨     4. Use gold to weaken city-states by causing civil wars.

¨     5. Made treaties and broke them.

¨     6. Married several times to build alliances.

¨     Demosthenes, who was an Athenian orator, warned the GR that Philip was going to treat them badly, but they ignored him.

¨     When Philip invaded that GR tried to raise an army, but it was too small to stop him.

¨     He started to plan a campaign against Persia but then died and Alexander took over.

Section 2: Alexander the Great

¨     Became ruler of Macedonia and GR at age of 20, but by that time he was an experienced soldier.

¨     Alexander (AL) was strong, good looking and smart.

¨     He had studied with Aristotle and learned many subjects from him.

¨     AL defeated the Persian Empire and never lost a battle.

¨     He could have gone further, but his troops refused after years of fighting and he stopped in India.

Alexander’s Empire

¨     AL tried to unite people in an empire that had many different people.

¨     He started to adopt some Persian ways and married a Persian.

¨     Adopted belief that rulers were gods so he had people treat him as a god.

¨     GR and Macedonians refused to worship AL as a god.

¨     GR didn’t believe non-Greeks were civilized and called them barbaroi.

¨     AL was not able to unite his empire because of these differences.

Alexandria (ALA)

¨     AL founded many cities and named several of the ALA.

¨     ALA in Egypt was the most important city that AL built.

¨     ALA was an important trade and learning center.

¨     ALA was a port city on the Nile that was home to the Lighthouse that was one of the Wonders of the World.

¨     ALA had a famous school (known as the Museum) with a great library that great thinkers used.

End of Empire

¨     AL died at the age of 33.

¨     After his death fighting broke out amongst people over who would rule the empire.

¨     Empire broken into three parts amongst Alexander’s generals.

¨     1. Antigonus became ruler of Macedonia.

¨     2. Ptolemy became ruler in Egypt.

¨     3. Seleucus became ruler in Persia.

¨     India went back to original rulers.

¨     Sparta and Athens became independent again.

¨     These areas continued to use GR language and AL’s image on coins.

¨     Trade increased over time since they all spoke same language.

¨     Cities that were a part of empire continued to use GR laws, language, calendar, business methods and coins.

¨     City-states were not same after they became independent.

¨     Factories in new cities now produced goods more cheaply and quickly than the old cities.

¨     Many GR left to look for better life in another place.

¨     By 146 BC the city –states were under Roman control.

Other important facts to know:

¨     AL was in charge of the cavalry in PH’s army.

¨     PH was assassinated.

¨     AL’s mother believed AL’s father was Zeus.